When “Chief Twit” Elon Musk launched a poll to decide whether to reinstate Donald Trump’s Twitter account, many wondered what happened to Musk’s plan to form a “widely diverse” content moderation board to help him when weighing decisions to undo permabans. He had announced that plan after meeting with civil rights groups earlier this month, but had never mentioned it since. It took four days of Trump not tweeting before Musk finally gave an update on that board of trustees he never formed.
In a tweet appearing to blame activists for Twitter’s ad problems, Musk claimed he had only promised to form the council on the condition that activists pledge to stop pushing advertisers to boycott his platform.
“A grand coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by stripping us of advertising revenue if I agreed to this condition,” Musk tweeted. “They broke the deal.”
Some activists who attended the rally tweeted to confirm they never made such a deal with Musk, including Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez, who helped form a #StopToxicTwitter coalition that pressured Twitter’s top 20 advertisers to boycott the platform.
“I’m not sure who Musk is talking about here, but I met him a few weeks ago with civil rights leaders, and I’m also a co-leader of the #StopToxicTwitter coalition calling on advertisers to pause ads until he straightens the ship”, Gonzalez tweeted. “I’ve never made a deal like this before.”
NAACP President Derrick Johnson supported Gonzalez in his own tweet, denying that activists had made a deal with Musk.
“We would never make a deal like that,” Johnson tweeted. “Democracy always comes first. The decisions made on Twitter are dangerous and it is our duty, as we have done since our inception, to speak out against threats to our democracy. Hate speech and violent conspiracies cannot have a safe haven.”
When Ars previously reported on the meeting between Musk and activists, it was immediately clear that Gonzalez intended to further promote the #StopToxicTwitter campaign. Gonzalez said at the time that Musk’s promises, which included forming a board to review content decisions, were “just the beginning of a long process” to hold Twitter accountable for upholding community standards.
Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Gonzalez told Ars that Musk uses activists as a scapegoat for his own poor decision making regarding brand safety.
“Musk is losing advertisers for acting irresponsibly, cutting content moderation teams that help keep brands safe and cutting out the sales teams responsible for maintaining relationships with advertisers,” Gonzalez told Ars. “The main person responsible for the exodus of Twitter advertisers is Elon Musk.”
Twitter has closed its communications department and could not be reached for comment.
